Online House Church Community

Lucy here, from the Koinonia Community on the Vancouver side of the river. I read Dan Mayhew's review of The Shack months ago, but then life got in the way and I forgot about it—until December, when my husband, Dan, received a copy for Christmas. Since then, it seems everyone I know is talking about The Shack—kind of like when you buy a car and suddenly the same make and model is everywhere.

I haven't had a chance to have an in-depth discussion with very many people about the book yet, though Jenny Ranum (of the 69^th Street fellowship) and I keep saying to each other, "I really want to sit down and talk with you about this book!" But Carolyn (also of the Koinonia Community) and I have each read it two or three times now, and have been thinking and talking about it.  We’re still in this process, and welcome further conversation on the subject, either face-to-face or here. So we’ve put up this joint post to share with you all some of the things we’ve been thinking about.

We love the laughter within the Godhead that pervades The Shack! And not just laughter, but intimate, loving relationships, both within the Godhead, and between God and Mack. One of my favorite scenes is when Jesus drops a bowl of batter, and Sarayu says something about humans being clumsy, causing the Trinity to dissolve into gales of laughter. Another is Papa saying, "[T]he Truth has a name; he's over in the woodshop right now covered in sawdust."

We love the way the book faces head-on what C. S. Lewis calls the problem of pain, without showing God as impotent in the face of human suffering, the way, for instance, Harold Kushner does in When Bad Things Happen to Good People. We appreciate the way The Shack affirms the absolute, objective nature of good—good isn't just what feels good, or even what I think is good—and the way it affirms the derivative nature of evil—it's not a question of two eternally balanced sides of The Force, but rather evil is the absence of good, and has no creative ability in itself.

We love The Shack's powerful affirmation that God is good. We like the way it points out that we can truly trust God only to the extent that we really believe, in heart as well as in head, that he's good; and that the alternative to trusting God is sitting in judgment over God. We appreciate its acknowledgement of the teachings of Scripture that God is neither male nor female, that there is a mutuality inherent in biblical submission, and that everything is about Jesus. We love the book's emphasis on "unilateral" forgiveness, as well as on the importance and healing power of Creation itself.

We also enjoyed its proposal of creative, interesting ideas not explicitly taught in Scripture but consistent with its teaching—that Jesus produced the miracles he performed by operation as a dependent human, for example, allowing the Father to produce spiritual gifts within him. Or that love is possible for us only because it existed first within the members of the Godhead and that the existence of a plural Godhead is inherent in God being love. That God limits himself with us just as we do with our kids—for example, God hears about Mack's kids as if for the first time. That God hides things for us to find in Creation, just for the sheer joy of the hiding and seeking.

I was talking with a friend the other day about The Shack, and mentioned that there are a few things about the book that concern me, too. My friend said something like, I loved the book because it painted a picture of something I want—take me there!  My life is stressful and chaotic right now, and I just don't have the time or emotional energy to think about it much more deeply than that. We don’t want to make life harder, or to nitpick. We're really glad that The Shack is encouraging people to walk with the Lord Jesus and enjoy him!! But we also think it's really important to take the time and energy to examine what we read—perhaps especially so when what we're reading tells us about who God is and what he does—to see whether what we're reading lines up with what the Bible says. We think it's important to "test everything" (1 Thess. 5: 21) and to "examine the Scriptures every day" to see if what we're hearing is true (Acts 17:11). Neither of us is very good at that, but it’s something we both want to grow in.  What we've shared so far is a sampling of the good we've found and been enjoying in The Shack. We'd like to share our concerns with you as well. But because this post is already so long, we'll come back in a few days with part two.

Thanks for reading thus far!